AISLIN Jones of Leongatha finished 21st in Women’s Olympic Skeet at this month’s ISSF World Championship Shotgun event held in Athens, Greece.
While she led at the end of the opening day, having hit 49 out of 50 targets, Aislin then recorded three consecutive scores of 22 out of 25, her final total of 115/125 falling short of the 119 cutoff to make the final, which was won by Samantha Simonton of the United States.
“It was a really good experience,” Aislin said of the event and the chance to experience Athens.
She was impressed by the shooting range and relished the opportunity to explore the city and its history, the keen marathon runner also doing laps of the Panathenaic Stadium, where the original modern Olympics were held.
A training camp in Qatar provided solid preparation for the Athens competition.
While not able to back up her day one score as she would have liked, Aislin feels confident she is doing the right things and “It’s just piecing the three days together so you’re in a position to be in a final,” she said.
She achieved her aim of starting positively, enjoying the competition as much as possible, but it takes experience to learn to handle the pressure a strong start brings.
“It’s easier to come back when you haven’t started well because you’ve taken the pressure off yourself, but what I’ve been working hard on is putting the runs on the board early and then you put yourself in a position where you’ve got to then hold it,” Aislin explained.
Working more on that is a way off, with plans to take time off until Christmas, her next competition being the Nationals in March.
Aislin’s father and coach Dave, said she did a lot of work in the lead-up to the Athens event.
“She shot really well at the World Cup in Italy in June; she was in the top six until the last round,” Dave said, saying Aislin took a lot of positives from that.
Aislin is still only 26, having started shooting at age 12, in a sport in which one can be competitive for many years.
Her busy life includes continuing to study a Bachelor of Commerce, having recently started working for a financial planning company in Melbourne.
Her fiancée, Jack Stockdale, a member of Korumburra Gun Club, withstood an epic shoot-off competing in American Skeet on the weekend, winning the State Title in Tasmania, hitting 99 targets out of 100 during the event, then 61 straight in the shoot-off.
